CODEPINK'S New Website Sparks
Activism Straight from the Screen to the Streets
CODEPINK announces the
launch of its new website, which sets yet another
standard in online activism through its seamless
integration of technology and street theatre.
What: New Website
Launch
Where: www.codepinkalert.org
When: April 13,
2007
The new site harnesses CODEPINK's
highly energetic drive for peace by synthesizing
the latest online tools to build participative
campaigns which are led by an ever-expanding community
of engaged citizens. "Our revamped, re-amped
website provides everyone with all the tools they
need to organize awesome meet-ups, call-ins, sit-ins,
shout-outs, and teach-ins. We're countering Bush's
military surge with our own electrifying surge
of online activism," says Medea Benjamin,
CODEPINK's cofounder.
The new CODEPINK
website provides campaign tools specifically designed
for and by its participants. The site is a powerful
portal, serving as a gateway to more than 250
local CODEPINK groups
across the US and the world, as well as online
advocacy tools which inspire and guide local community
action. It also contains an ever-expanding list
of micro websites dedicated to major campaigns
that have expanded CODEPINK's
base within and outside the US, including DontBuyBushsWar.Org,
ListenHillary.Org, PelosiWatch.Org, GivePeaceAVote.Org, CODEPINK Action, WomenSayNoToWar, GazaFreedomMarch.Org, and StolenBeauty.Org.
The site's hallmark is its unabashed use of the
CODEPINK trademark
pink with photography of daring actions across
the streets of America and in the halls of Congress.
It is no coincidence that the website's visual
vibrancy and rich content is meant to jolt you
from a place of complacency to a place of active
engagement with social and political change. The
fact that many supporters never liked pink until
they connected with CODEPINK
indicates how the organization has developed an
invaluable emotional connection with the color
pink to represent the audacious power of peace.
"Pink is hard to ignore, just like our protests,
which have been increasingly hard to ignore by
the media and politicians on capital hill,"
says cofounder Gael Murphy. Washington Post just
produced a 6-minute video capturing CODEPINK
in action-proving without any doubt that people
are sitting up and taking notice, and more often
than not, supporting CODEPINK's
drive to bring the troops home fast.
"Virtually all websites have a persuasive
purpose, and the extent to which a site's content
and design compel visitors to take action is a
critical measure of any organization's success.
CODEPINK's expanding
supporter base and visible influence on the peace
movement simply underscores this point,"
says Cofounder Jodie Evans.
The new website has been designed by CODEPINK's
webmistress and graphic designer, Farida Sheralam,
who also worked with content management consultants
at Radical
Designs to enhance the site's usability and
navigation. For a backgrounder on the evolution
of CODEPINK's online
presence & web team, visit www.codepinkalert.org.
Contacts:
Dana Balicki:
dana[at]codepinkalert.org
(latest campaigns)
Farida Sheralam:
webmistress[at]codepinkalert.org
(new website design)
CODEPINK receives the 2008 Best
Microsite Progressive Source Award!
July, 2008 --
Progressive Source Communications, the New
York-based public interest digital marketing company,
announced the winners of the Second Annual Progressive
Source Award today. This year, CODEPINK's
microsite: Don't
Buy Bush's War won the Judges'
Choice Awards Best Microsite.The Progressive
Source Awards are sponsored by Progressive Source
Communications to provide a repository of best
practices that can instruct and inspire progressive
organizations everywhere.
CODEPINK receives the 2007 MOST
POPULAR Best Homepage Progressive Source Award!
Thank you for your votes!
July, 2007 -- The Progressive Source Awards folks
searched more than a thousand progressive advocacy
and nonprofit Web sites to select nominees. They
nominated CODEPINK's
website for its use of the web to effectively
spread our message with provocative videos, an
arresting homepage and informative resources to
motivate, educate and inspire. A “Most Popular
Award” winner was also selected for each
award category based upon votes of visitors to
this site. More...
Our Web Story...
As long as there has been
a CODEPINK, there
has been a CODEPINK
website.
That first day in October, 2002,
we registered CODEPINK4Peace.com
and heralded it with a press conference. Our web
capacity has been on a steep climb ever since.
Pilar and Michelle Perez designed the original
site in HTML. Larry Eason, who had worked with
Jodie Evans when she ran Jerry Brown's presidential
campaign, saved the day by introducing us to a
user-friendly platform, Kintera, and an easier
to communicate address: codepinkalert.org. Lorinda Earl, who we met at a march, became our first
webmistress.
Since then, our ever-expanding supporter base
and round-the-clock, round-the-world actions have
made web-based communication tools all the more
imperative. In 2005, the CODEPINK
website began to offer more networking tools that
enabled participatory campaigns built around local
CODEPINK communities.
As a result, our local groups could build their
individual websites, upload blogs, comments, photos
and reports on the national website, and access
our email list for targeted campaigns within their
hometowns.
Armed with these new tools, we launched our first micro-site in 2005:
ONEMILLIONREASONS
to end the war in Iraq. This successful drive
spurred our decision to launch further campaign-driven
micro sites, including Women Say No to War, Listen
Hillary, Give Peace a Vote, and more recently,
Don't Buy Bush's War. These micro sites have been
highly effective, but we decided it was time to
revamp the original site design and structure
and integrate more intuitive and user-friendly
navigation. The result is a dynamic mix of form
and function that will serve as a model for activist
groups worldwide.